The ongoing debate within the MAGA movement regarding what U.S. policy should be relating to the nation of Israel seems to have reached a fevered pitch, with Mark Levin stating the following on his show recently:
I don’t know whether it’s Jew hatred from the Marxists, the Islamists, the neo-Nazis, the grifters. I don’t know where they’re pulling us and pushing us. What do they want to do with American Jews? What do they want to do? Where are they taking this country? They’re destroying it. Carlson, Owens, Kelly, Bannon.
Tucker Carlson, for his part, claims to only want an open debate, criticizing voices like Levin for reverting to ad hominem attacks rather than explaining their positions. I personally have friends and acquaintances on both sides of the issue, as well as some who truly just seem to want answers about exactly where an earnest, conservative Republican in the age of Trump ought to come down on the topic. Hence, I thought a few thoughts were in order.
But first, a few items from Western History.
Among the first Westerners in the region of Palestine (as it relates to this article’s concerns) were the Crusaders back in the A.D. 1000s, whose aim was to liberate Christian holy sites from Muslim rule. This fighting went back and forth over the next couple hundred years with control belonging at different times to both Christians and Muslims. Then, in 1516, Ottoman Muslims again took control, which they held until 1917 when the Balfour Declaration was established by Great Britain, returning the land to the Jews. Finally, in 1948, only hours before the mandate of the Balfour Declaration was set to expire, the nation of Israel declared its independence, and there has been turmoil between Jews and Muslims in the region ever since.
The main point of this summary is to highlight the fact that, in one way or another, Westerners and/or Christian nations (for the two terms are virtually interchangeable) have had an interest in the region since time out of mind. This interest has only increased since the invention of the internal combustion engine and the rise of fossil fuel production.
Why is this important?
It is because, although I’m sympathetic to Carlson’s point of view, there seems to be an isolationism extant in his philosophies, as well as an unawareness of the close cultural ties between Judaism and Christianity that is a radical departure of the policies that came before.
Does this mean that Carlson is wrong? Of course not. However, it does call to mind the virtue of prudence, along with the old statement by G. K. Chesterton which says that before people decide to take down a fence, they should at least stop and ask why it was put there in the first place.
That said, Carlson has a point about Levin’s refusal to participate in rational debate. More pointedly, he has said that by insisting on ad hominem attacks, the latter is guilty of engaging in the very form of identity politics that those of us on the right claim to despise. Carlson is correct about this. Additionally, he seems to have stumbled into a weak point in the MAGA movement, i.e., one that isn’t – at least at this point – being carried by reason and sound argument.
My proposal is this: Let’s have the debate. While I am inclined toward a much more traditional approach than the one Carlson promotes, a serious discussion must be held about Israel and exactly what the U.S.’s obligations to it are. Further, those on the side of Levin’s argument need to take Carlson and his proponents at their word, that they don’t really want to destroy Jews, but only to establish a set of policies that is run by our country, that puts it first, and truly has its own citizens’ best interests at heart.
So much has happened lately that makes this debate necessary. Of course, Jeffrey Epstein looms over all of it. Who was he? What were his ties to the nation of Israel? What exactly are the distinct ties between the Mossad and our own CIA? Lack of transparency regarding Thomas Crooks has only added fuel to the fire, a phenomenon that seems to be repeating itself with Tyler Robinson. Yet the history of the Jews simultaneously works to make the needed debate so much more difficult, for there was a thing called the Holocaust, and it is not wrong to wonder if we, the human race, could be guilty of such a thing again.
Let it therefore be known that a trusted arbiter is needed to bring the two sides together. This arbiter can only be Donald Trump himself. Hence, I am calling on the current president to bring about a private summit between these two sides of the MAGA movement, in order to have the much-needed debate mentioned above, for Trump alone can heal the fracture currently tearing our movement apart. He did it in the Middle East, so why not within his own movement?
Along with his father, Allen Keller runs a lumber business in Stevenson, Alabama. He has a Ph.D. in Creative Writing from Florida State University and an MBA from University of Virginia. He can be reached for comment at [email protected].
The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of 1819 News. To comment, please send an email with your name and contact information to [email protected].
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